Beverage dispensing stand



May 22, 1956 Filed June 9. 1955 O. F. HALL BEVERAGE DISPENSING STAND 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 I 71 V??? for Owen Z fzaZZ Zy fari'er 4? 62127397" jztarfiys y 1956 o. F. HALL 2,746,646

BEVERAGE DISPENSING STAND Filed un 9. 9 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 wmvnnmuwnnuluum m m m w. n m n \v m United States Patent BEVERAGE DISPENSING STAND Owen F. Hall, Wankegan, Ill.

Application June 9, 1955, Serial No. 514,355

4 Claims. (Cl. 222-113) This invention relates to improvements in beverage dispensing stands and has for its principal object to provide a stand for supporting a plurality of bottles in inverted position, each with dispensing valves or units at their lower ends in position to facilitate selective withdrawal of liquids therefrom.

A further object of the invention is to provide an improved stand of the character described, including a source of illumination arranged for special display of the labels of different beverage bottles in an attractive manner.

Other objects of the invention will appear from time to time as the following description proceeds.

The invention may best be understood by reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a front view of the dispensing stand, showing several beverage bottles supported in a normal position for dispensing purposes.

Figure 2 is an enlarged detail section taken generally on line 2-2 of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is an enlarged fragmentary detail of one of the bottle supports with the bottle removed therefrom.

Figure 4 is a detail section taken on line 4-4 of Figure 3.

Referring now to details of the embodiment of my invention illustrated in the drawings, indicates the stand generally consisting of a flat base 11, side walls 12, 12, rear wall 13, and a top wall 14, all forming an elongated generally rectangular casing with an open front face affording access to its interior. In the form shown herein, the front face is slightly inclined forwardly and downwardly from the top wall. The side and rear walls may be made of expanded metal as indicated in Figure 2 to enhance the attractiveness of the display when the interior of the casing is illuminated, as will presently appear.

A bottle rack is mounted in the upper part of the casing, to support a single row of inverted beverage-bottles 16, 16 of similar conventional size, and more or less similar in shape. The rack 15 includes a plurality of equally spaced generally upright supports 17, 17 each having a stirrup-like, forwardly extending end bracket 17' at its lower end, to support the lower, neck ends of an inverted bottle. In the preferred form shown herein, each bottle neck has a dispensing valve or unit 18 detachably inserted therein. The dispensing units 18 may be one of several different forms of spring-pressed valve devices, heretofore used for dispensing liquids, including a depending plunger 19 having a cross bar 20, herein shown as V-shaped. Since the general structure and operation of such dispensing units is well known in the art, further details need not be described or shown herein, except to note that the specific form of dispensing unit shown herein is of the type disclosed in my copending application Serial No. 514,256, filed June 9, 1955, and includes an enlarged valve portion adapted for fitting engagement between the furcations of each end bracket 17', with an intermediate flanged portion 18 seated in a recess formed by upstanding lugs 21, 21 at opposite sides of said fingers 21', 21 when the bottle is mounted on its support 17. With this arrangement, the several dispensing units are all disposed a uniform distance above he a 11. to afi rd fi ent om fo be e a g asses of conventional side to be filled by pressing the edges of a glass upward against the cross bar'20 of any desired dispensing unit, to receive a predetermined amount of beverage.

Suitable tension means is provided for retaining the bottles in their seated position, herein consisting of a coil compression spring 22, mounted on a forwardly bent end portion 23 at the upper end of each upright support 17, adjacent the under face of the top wall 14. Each coil spring supports a disc 24 at its lower end, adapted for engagement with the top face (herein, the bottom end) of an inverted bottle. In the form shown, each disc 24 is connected to its adjacent end portion 23 by a pair of flexible wires 25 to limit downward extension of its coil spring 22. The arrangement is such that by raising each bottle against the compression of its respective spring 22, the dispenser unit can be lifted out of its seated engagement in the stirrup-like bracket 17, so as to permit the bottle and its dispenser unit to be withdrawn forwardly from the support 17 for removal from the casing.

A cross strip depends a short distance from the front edge of the top wall 14 to obscure the coil springs 22 from view in the front opening of the casing.

It will be und rsto d t t th a num e of d fie t n beverage bottles set in inverted position, as shown in Figures 1 and 2, it is preferable to have the advertising labels 27, 28 of the different bottles applied in inverted position on their respective bottles, so that the labels will be viewed in their right-side-up positions.

Barrier means are also provided for protecting the bottles against easy removal from the casing, and for enhancing the attractivenes of the display. Such barrier means herein consists of a removable cross bar 30 extending horizontally across the front of the casing, and normally disposed at a level immediately below the labels on the bottles, and of sufiicient width to obscure the shouldered portions of said bottles (see Figure 2). Said cross bar is slidably secured to the front edges of the side walls 12, 12, in the illustrative form shown herein, said cross bar having U-shaped guides 31 at its opposite ends mounted for vertical sliding movement along inwardly turnedflanges 32, 32 extending along the front edges of the side walls 12, 12. Latches 33 are pivotally mounted adjacent the guides 31, and are normally urged by springs 31 into engagement with detents 34 on the upright flanges 32 when the cross bar is raised to its normal level. When the bar is to be removed from restraining position relative to the bottles, the latches 33 are manually released from their detents 34, to permit the bar to he slid downward to a position adjacent the base, as shown in dotted lines in Figure 1, thus affording free access to the bottles for removal or replacement. When the bar is raised to latching position, said bar engages stops 33 on the side flanges 32.

The cross bar 30 also has concealed illumination means along its inner face, herein consisting of one or more fluorescent tubes 35, mounted on conventional end supports 35, and recessed in said cross bar, so that the latter, in effect, also forms a reflector for the illumination means. Electric current is applied as usual to the tubes 35 by suitable flexible conductors (not shown). The fluorescent tube 35 may be protected by a narrow bar 36 extending along the inner side of said tube (see Figure 2). As Will be seen from Figure 2, the base 11 and top plate 14 of the dispensing stand each have flat surfaces, for supporting beverage glasses or the like.

It will now be understood from the foregoing description that my novel form of dispenser stand is especially adaptable for selectively dispensing beverages of different kinds and of different brands, where the bottles are of approximately the same capacity but of slightly varying shapes, as is usually the case with bottles of different makes and brands. As is well known, commercial beverage bottles having the same capacity are usually of substantially the same height, but those of different brands often vary somewhat in shape, particularly as to the shape of the neck and shoulder portions. When such bottles are mounted in my improved stand, however, the cross bar 30 is arranged to conceal the necks and shoulders of the inverted bottles, but the main bodies of the bottles, and the labels carried thereon, are visible to the prospective user, thus lending an especially neat uniform appearance to the entire row of bottles.

It will be further understood that the concealed illuminating means on the cross bar 30, consisting of the fluorescent tube 35, provides an unusual and especially striking form of floodlight illumination, directed partially upward upon the ditferent labels of the bottles, and partially downward upon the corresponding dispensing units, as shown in Figures 1 and 2.

Although I have shown and described certain embodiments of my invention, it will be understood that I do not wish to be limited to the exact construction shown and described but that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In a beverage dispensing stand, a casing open at one side, a rack mounted in said casing adjacent the upper portion thereof for supporting a plurality of bottles in 4 inverted position, with dispensing valve units inserted in the necks of said bottles, said rack including a plurality of horizontally aligned generally upright supporting members for individual bottles, with the dispensing valve units of said bottles in uniformly spaced relation above the bottom of said casing, each of said bottle supporting members including a spring holding member at the upper end thereof for yieldably engaging the inverted bottom face of its respective bottle, and a forwardly-projecting bifurcated supporting member on the lower end of each bottle supporting member adapted to receive a dispensing valve unit in detachable fitting relation therebetween.

2. The structure of claim 1, wherein the furcations on the supporting members are vertically recessed intermediate their ends for holding the dispensing units in seated relation on said supporting members, when their respective bottles are held under tension of the yieldablc holding members.

3. The structure of claim 1, wherein the casing is provided with a cross bar normally positioned horizontally thereof in bottle restraining position substantially at the level of the neck and shoulder portion of the bottles, and means is provided for detachably releasing said cross bar from its normal restraining position so as to permit removal of said bottles from their respective supports.

4. The structure in accordance with claim 3, wherein the cross bar is provided with illumination means mounted on its inner side, in position to illuminate both the bodies of the bottles above said cross bar and the interior of the casing beneath said cross bar.

No references cited. 

